Expectations of Women: Has it only gotten worse?

This blog post is going to discuss exactly what you’ve read in the title. Have the expectations of women gotten worse or better? I love sharing my thoughts on topics like this because it’s interesting to see what everyone else has to say in the comments. Seeing as feminism and women’s rights is such a pressing issue today, it seems only fit to share my opinion on it.

Thank you to everyone who voted in my Twitter poll, be sure to follow me @carolineagoba x

Firstly, I want to share why I felt the need to write a blog post about women’s issues and struggles. If you’re Irish, or live in Ireland, or even if you aren’t you may have heard about the infamous rugby rape trial that has gotten people angered, confused and indecisive. You may have heard about it, through the trending hashtag #IBelieveHer. And imagine how the girl must feel.

If you haven’t heard of it, here’s a link to an article explaining it from the Irish Times.

Now, whether this case is true or not, it still inspired me to write about something concerning women and the struggles we have to face everyday. Many voted for the expectations of women as the first for me to write.

Has the criteria for how women should dress changed?

This ties in with the expectations of women massively, and how they should look but I’ll get into that later. How women dress.. why should this be such an issue?

Living in a world where everything is social media crazed and everyone basically documents their lives, where there are platforms where you can share your opinion like Twitter – it’s hard to get away from reminders about what people expect from women.

Women should not dress provocatively, nor walk around showing off skin. It sends across the wrong message.

Honestly, I am not one to really show skin, unless it’s summer or I’m going out. But that’s okay, because that’s how I like to dress. Now what about the women that feel like dressing sexy or showing however amount of skin they want to show, why do they get labelled? I know it’s today’s society, but I personally would never have any issue with a woman wearing whatever she wants, whenever she wants. So, why do so many people care?

We are now in 2018, and I still see grown men comment on what grown women are wearing. It still baffles me. Like, that is a grown woman. She knows what she looks like wearing it, she feels confident in it, so why are you bothered? This not only applies to men but women too. Believe it or not, women can be more critical. However, I believe it’s the women that are insecure about themselves that comments on another’s appearance, simply because they would not have the confidence to do the same.

Has the expectations of how women should dress changed? Hell no.

Let’s talk about what men expect women to expect

If you’re confused about the subheading, let me explain.

For some reason, being cheated on or disrespected by a man.. is trendy? I’m saying this purely because of the tweets and ‘funny’ meme posts I’ve seen about men being trash. And let me just say, I do not think all men are the same.

But let’s think about who’s seeing all these posts. All these posts and conversations can really alter how a boy treats a girl or how a girl can allow a boy to treat her. This is so wrong because how can we better this era if this is the mentality we have.

A woman should work hard to keep a man.

Why should a woman work hard to keep the man? Why can’t the man work hard to keep the woman? Or better yet, why isn’t there a balance? We are still not equal then.

Has the fear of being a woman changed?

Being realistic, people all the time are susceptible to danger. It’s inevitable. And to be honest, I think the only time in your life you aren’t seen as a target or vulnerable is when your an adult. When you’re a child or old, you are so much more exposed to possible danger because you’re weaker. Everyone needs to be careful, but women have it bad.

In the night, there’s this long country road I have to walk to get to my house. It’s pitch black and all you can see is the road, a big field and the sky until you reach my house. I dread having to walk past that place everyday because I’m so fearful about what could happen if the wrong person saw me there at the wrong time.

Women should take extra precautions to avoid being taken advantage of.

There’s always that constant worry as a women about what might happen or what could happen. And it’s hard for men to realise this. And to say that we, as women, should be careful so nothing can happen to us? It scares me that there may never be hope for this and women should always have to live in fear.

‘I want that perfect body’

Accepting your body is not only something that only applies to women but I feel like women are more affected by this. Mainly because they want men to want them. At the moment, being ‘thick’ is in. Having a curvaceous body and a tiny waist is what most men want. And women will go as far as literally wearing a waist trainer that shoves all your organs together, so that men will accept them as beautiful. I do applaud the women that do it for themselves though.

It’s hard to love my body when others don’t.

This worries me though, because you hear of stories like ‘I got plastic surgery because my boyfriend said my ass is too small’ or ‘Now that I have my breasts done, I get more male attention’. And I’m happy with that, nothing against it. But only if it’s for the right reasons. Surgically enhancing yourself to fit into what society thinks is beautiful is tragic in my opinion. I truly am sorry if I am offending anyone, but what some women need to realise is those bodies that they idolise are probably fake.

If you’re a woman, you have to work extra hard to be successful.

I believe this to be true because just looking into how much women get paid vs. men, it proves the point. In order to be a ‘girl boss’ you do have to work extra harder. And I’m glad I am seeing more empowering women, because it inspires others to do the same.

But I still feel like women have yet to take on more powerful roles. However, when they do they have to absolutely brilliant at what they do to be even taken seriously. A man has to put in only half the effort and boom, he’s amazing? When is this going to change? Why are women perceived as weaker?

It’s a man world.

It is extremely hard to not agree with that statement, because from the looks of things, it is a man’s world.

I have so much more to say on this topic, but I feel like that’s enough for this blog post.